This application is based on and claims the priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 of German Patent Application 100 29 369.7, filed on Jun. 15, 2000, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to a modular system of trim paneling components and outfitting components, e.g. furnishings or accessories such as luggage bins or hat racks, for paneling and outfitting the interior of a passenger cabin of an aircraft.
It is generally known to provide a variety of trim components including side wall panels, lower wall or dado panels, ceiling panels, light-covers, joint or transition trim strips, and the like, as well as outfitting components such as baggage compartments or luggage stowage bins, which are generally also called hat racks. Conventionally, a specialized set of such trim components and outfitting components is particularly designed for each specific type of aircraft, whereby an aircraft type is defined by its fuselage cross-sectional shape and size.
The aircraft manufacturers as well as the airlines are constantly striving to provide improved passenger comfort in the aircraft passenger cabins, which constantly makes greater demands on all of the cabin components, including the trim components and the outfitting components. Moreover, it is desired by aircraft manufacturers and by the airlines operating the aircraft, to achieve a high degree of commonality of various components among the different individual aircraft types produced by a given aircraft manufacturer, in order to reduce the required inventory of spare parts or replacement parts, to allow a uniform maintenance schedule and procedure for all of the aircraft types, and to reduce the variety of different components that must be manufactured.
A further essential criteria for the product philosophy of an aircraft manufacturer is to achieve a common or uniform appearance and image, e.g. a so-called xe2x80x9ccorporate identityxe2x80x9d, among all of the aircraft types of this manufacturer. On the other hand, the airlines operating the aircraft desire a certain degree of design flexibility to establish their own desired uniform appearance, image, or xe2x80x9ccorporate identityxe2x80x9d of the airline, independently of the particular manufacturer of the aircraft and independently of the aircraft type. In other words, the aircraft manufacturer aims to achieve a certain degree of commonality among all aircraft types in its product range, while the airline aims to achieve a certain degree of commonality among all the aircraft in its fleet, which may include aircraft of different types and different manufacturers.
As an example, the Airbus aircraft of the single aisle family, such as the A320 aircraft, have a cabin cross-sectional contour that expands or widens upwardly, to provide a large ceiling surface with a spacious open feeling, as well as an effective ceiling surface area to be used as an indirect lighting reflector to provide general lighting of the cabin. Furthermore, this characteristic feature has also been provided in the passenger cabin of the Airbus twin-aisle aircraft types, such as the A330/A340 aircraft.
Further in this regard, FIG. 1A schematically shows a cross-section through an aircraft fuselage 1xe2x80x2 of the single aisle type having a relatively small fuselage diameter, while FIG. 1B schematically shows a cross-section through the fuselage 3xe2x80x2 of an aircraft of the twin-aisle type with a relatively larger diameter. It can be seen in FIGS. 1A and 1B, that the passenger cabin 2xe2x80x2 of the smaller aircraft 1xe2x80x2 and the passenger cabin 4xe2x80x2 of the larger aircraft 3xe2x80x2 share certain common features of the overall appearance, such as the general appearance of the overhead hat racks or stowage bins, and the over-aisle head room that widens upwardly to an enlarged ceiling panel area. These cross-sectional views of FIGS. 1A and 1B further generally show the shapes of various components within the cabins, such as the hat racks, ceiling panels, side wall panels, and dado panels, which are also schematically shown in the chart or table of FIG. 1C. From FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C, it becomes apparent that various differently configured trim components and outfitting components are respectively used for the smaller fuselage 1xe2x80x2 of type I and for the larger fuselage 3xe2x80x2 of type II, respectively, for achieving the above-mentioned generally similar appearance features of the two cabins 2xe2x80x2 and 4xe2x80x2. The table of FIG. 1C summarizes how many of each of the trim components and outfitting components of type I and type II are used in a typical cross-section of the two different aircraft types 1xe2x80x2 and 3xe2x80x2. For example, a typical cross-section of the fuselage 1xe2x80x2 includes two of the type I hat racks, one of the type I ceiling panels, two of the type I side wall panels, and two of the type I dado panels, while a typical cross-section of the fuselage 3xe2x80x2 includes two of the type II hat racks, one of the type II center hat racks, two of the type II ceiling panels, two of the type II side wall panels, and two of the type II dado panels.
It is apparent that the various components of type I and of type II are somewhat similar in shape, size and configuration with respect to each other, but are not identical. As a result, it is necessary to manufacture and inventory each of these parts with its own particular configuration for each of the fuselage types I and II independently. As a further result, in the conventional manner of carrying out a design of a new cabin layout, it has been necessary to individually and independently design all of the necessary trim components and outfitting components separately for this new cabin design, whereby the trim and outfitting components will have specialized configurations (e.g. dimensions and shapes) especially adapted to the particular new cabin design. This leads to great costs and expenditure of time for carrying out a new cabin design. Especially when the product range or product pallet of the manufacturer includes several different aircraft types, it becomes very costly and time consuming, because a completely new design and development of all the cabin interior components is necessary for each respective aircraft type of this product pallet. An example is the Airbus product range including the above mentioned aircraft, among others, as well as the new A380 passenger transport aircraft under development, with a still larger fuselage cross-section and two through-going passenger decks.
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide an aircraft passenger cabin of the above described general type, and particularly to provide a system of trim components and outfitting components for such a passenger cabin, such that these components are modularly useable in plural differently-sized aircraft types of a given aircraft manufacturer. Therewith, the invention further aims to reduce the time required for designing a new cabin layout, while also achieving improved uniformity in maintenance procedures and a reduced inventory requirement for replacement parts. The invention further aims to avoid or overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, and to achieve additional advantages as apparent from the present specification.
The above objects have been achieved according to the invention in a passenger cabin of a passenger transport aircraft, including trim components and outfitting components installed in the interior of the passenger cabin, with at least one modular interior component, for example a hat rack (or stowage bin), a side wall panel, a lower wall or dado panel, a lateral light cover, a ceiling panel, a window funnel, and a junction area or gap trim component. This cabin interior component is utilizable in common in various different aircraft types having different fuselage cross-sectional sizes, whereby the interior component or components can be assembled together in a modular fashion to be adapted to the particular fuselage cross-sectional size at hand. Also in this context, the respective passenger cabin is adapted to the size relationships of the respective fuselage cross-sectional size. In this application, a passenger cabin is understood to be an area in an aircraft that is furnished for passenger occupancy, e.g. including seats, beds, or the like for the passengers.
The above objects have further been achieved according to the invention in a cabin interior trim paneling and outfitting system in which a plurality of trim components and/or outfitting components of a certain configuration (e.g. size and shape) are installed in common in plural aircraft fuselages respectively having different fuselage cross-sectional sizes, shapes and/or aircraft types.
With the inventive system, the total cost and time expenditure required for the new development of a passenger cabin design or layout, in connection with the development of a new aircraft type, may be advantageously reduced. By using trim components and outfitting components that are common across several different aircraft, types, the total number of different trim components and outfitting components is reduced in comparison to the prior art, and each individual trim component or outfitting component may be produced in a larger piece count or number. In this manner, the per piece cost may be reduced, because the tooling and equipment costs on a per piece basis are proportionately reduced in connection with the increase of the piece count of a given part that is manufactured. Moreover, the airlines or aircraft operators gain the advantage of a reduced inventory requirement for replacement parts, as well as a uniform maintenance program that is applicable to various different aircraft types, so that the cost and time expenditure for maintenance is simultaneously reduced.
According to further particular embodiment features according to the invention, various different interior components, e.g. trim components and outfitting components, and preferably all of the essential interior components that are utilized in furnishing a cabin interior, can be installed in a modular manner in various different passenger cabins having different cabin sizes. In other words, preferably all of the different components are fully interchangeable among all different sizes and configurations of passenger cabins in different aircraft types.
According to another detail of the invention, the curvature of a sidewall panel as a modular interior component corresponds to the curvature of the smallest fuselage cross-sectional size of the various aircraft types for which this sidewall panel may be used. With this feature, and in general to achieve uniform modular application of the various different components in various different sizes of aircraft, it is unavoidable that the shape of each of the components will not always be optimized to the shape and size of the respective fuselage in which the components are installed. However, according to the invention, any loss of space, i.e. non-optimal use of the volume available within the respective aircraft fuselage, can be minimized or at least shifted to insignificant areas at which a passenger will not notice or be disadvantaged by this loss of space.
By arranging a light cover to at least partially overlap the vertical height of the sidewall panel, the extent of this overlap can be adjusted to accommodate various different respective sizes of passenger cabins in different aircraft types.
In combination with the common or uniform standardized components, such as large surface components like sidewall panels, which may be used in common in various different aircraft types, the invention further provides specialized trim components that are particularly configured and dimensioned for a specific installation or application in a specific aircraft type. For example, a particular light cover that is respectively adapted for a particular aircraft type can be provided to cover a gap or transition between the common sidewall panel and the common hat rack, whereby this light cover has particular dimensions and the like adapted to the particular aircraft type in which it is installed. In this manner, the modular and uniform components can be used to best advantage, while still achieving a perfect fit or adaptation to different passenger cabins or other special requirements of unusual cabin arrangements or the like.
To achieve a greater degree of modularity, the sidewall panel itself may be modularly assembled from a main sidewall panel and an upper sidewall panel. This allows an even more versatile and adaptable application of the components to various different dimensions or other requirements of different aircraft passenger cabins, while still achieving an overall uniform system of components that is applicable to various different aircraft types.
The inventive arrangement further provides system mounting rails, at least in the area of the upper side walls of the aircraft fuselage, whereby the sidewall panels or at least the upper sidewall panels can be easily exchangeably mounted on these system rails. In this manner, it is simple to carry out airline-specific modifications or special arrangements, for example an alteration of the passenger class zones within the passenger cabin. This may be achieve preferably by changing the upper sidewall panels to other panels having a different decor scheme or the like. Another possibility is for the specific airline to express, or later change, its corporate image, for example by means of exchanging the upper wall panels with other panels having a different particular decor scheme, style, logo, or the like, without having to entirely remove the wall panels and rebuild the cabin interior trim from scratch.
The baggage compartments or hat racks may also be constructed as modular components further including a common hat rack front part and hat rack middle parts that can be used in common across several different aircraft types.
To accommodate different wall thicknesses of different aircraft types in the area of the passenger cabin windows, the invention provides a specialized window funnel, i.e. a window funnel having specialized dimensions, for covering the space or transition between the standardized sidewall panel and the respective window of an aircraft fuselage. Thereby the specialized window funnel is adapted to the dimensional requirements of this particular aircraft type.
In order to be able to use the ceiling panels uniformly or in common among different aircraft types, the dimensions of the ceiling panel are adapted to the dimensions of the ceiling area, of the smallest passenger cabin, i.e. the cabin of the smallest type of aircraft. In order to panel the larger ceiling areas of larger types of aircraft, these smaller common ceiling panels are used in combination with each other, or in combination with additional ceiling panel modules as required to meet the dimensional needs of the specific application.